'Don't panic - Putin knows he's losing the war and his nuclear threat is meant to get in our heads'
21 September 2022, 18:55 | Updated: 21 September 2022, 18:59
Vladimir Putin realises he is losing his war against Ukraine and is hoping to keep the territories Russia has captured with his nuclear threats, a former top US diplomat has told LBC.
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The Russian president has insisted he is "not bluffing" and ordered a mobilisation of some 300,000 reservists as his military continues to be pummelled by Ukraine after it retook huge chunks of territory.
He has now declared sham referenda across the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk breakaway regions and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas in the south which were captured earlier in the war.
World leaders fear he will declare them part of Russia which could bring them under its formidable nuclear arsenal's umbrella.
But Kurt Volker, the former US ambassador to Nato who represented America at Russia-Ukraine peace talks, told LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr that the West should not panic over the threat.
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"I think we should just be very steady - look, any threat of nuclear use, we have to take seriously, of course, but he's doing this in order to try to get inside our heads.
"He's got a weakening hand in Russia, the military effort's not going well, he's had to resort to calling up reservists even though he doesn't have the equipment to give them.
'Putin realises he is not going to win this war.'
"They've lost ground and Ukraine, he got a brush back from Chinese President Xi. So he's putting this out there to try to get inside our heads.
"And I think we need to be very clear that just because he might wave a wand next week, and say that some of this Ukrainian territory now belongs to Russia - no one sees this as Russian territory.
"And when it comes to what he said, he said Russia would defend its own territorial integrity. Well, we need to be very clear, no one's threatening Russia. No one's attacking Russia, there are no foreign troops in Russia, there's no intention to do so.
"He doesn't have to worry about being attacked. He just needs to stop his own attacks on Ukraine."
Earlier, Putin had said: "Our country also has various high-impact weapons, in some ways more powerful than those of Nato countries and in case of a threat against our country's territorial integrity, we will certainly use all means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff."
Tonight with Andrew Marr: Kurt Volker – former US Ambassador to NATO
While a nuclear strike on the West would be unlikely despite ongoing Russian rhetoric – the product of Putin and his cronies' increasing desperation at a war that is turning against them and puts their own position as rulers of Russia at risk – there have been fears they could turn to a tactical, limited nuclear strike in Ukraine.
But Mr Volker said even that attack, which would wreak huge destruction and create fallout, would not break the Ukrainians’ will.
He said their attitude is that having seen destruction in places like Mariupol without a nuke, "what's the difference if they use a nuclear weapon to do the same thing?"
He added: "And from a Russian perspective, I think that they're going to be very circumspect on this. No use of strategic nuclear weapons, because they know that withdraw a strategic nuclear response, but even tactical, they must know that that would draw Western forces in against their conventional forces anyway."
Putin's mobilisation of 300,000 reservists, the biggest escalation of the conflict in Ukraine since it began in February, has triggered panic across Russia's population and seen a rush to book flights to escape a potential wider conscription.
